AuthorTopic: Complete US Alben Box End of January 2014 (Read 2089 times)

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of these history-making events, The U.S. Albums, a new 13CD Beatles collection spanning 1964’s Meet The Beatles! to 1970’s Hey Jude, will be released January 20 (January 21 in North America) by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol. The Beatles’ U.S. albums differed from the band’s U.K. albums in a variety of ways, including different track lists, song mixes, album titles, and art.

The albums are presented in mono and stereo, with the exception of The Beatles’ Story and Hey Jude, which are in stereo only. Collected in a boxed set with faithfully replicated original LP artwork, including the albums’ inner sleeves, the 13 CDs are accompanied by a 64-page booklet with Beatles photos and promotional art from the time, as well as a new essay by American author and television executive Bill Flanagan. For a limited time, all of the albums (with the exception of The Beatles’ Story, an audio documentary album) will also be available for individual CD purchase. A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), The Beatles’ Story, Yesterday And Today, Hey Jude, and the U.S. version of Revolver make their CD debuts with these Releases.

Apart from the 20 or so unique U.S. mixes, the remaining songs will be remastered from the masters at Abbey Road. They WON'T be the 2009 remasters, but new remasters made to sound like the U.S. albums, just with better sound. All duophonic mixes will be replaced with true stereo where available. Songs like She Loves You which have no true stereo mix will be presented in Mono.

Whether reverb will be added or how much is unknown at this point.

For the unique U.S. mixes (mono Dr. Robert, etc.) the mixes sent to Capitol will be remasterd, preferably as close to first generation as possible.

How will all this sound? We'll have to wait until January to find out.

If that's the case, George, this new box set will not recreate the original US Capitol Beatles experience. The 2004 and 2006 Capitol box sets came close and I'm happy with those. Volume 3 was to complete the set, but that idea is gone.

I have the STEREO US Capitol Revolver LP. I also have the MONO US Capitol Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP. I didn't have the extra dollar that day to get the STEREO LP when I bought it in 1967. These will have to suffice.

I think a lot of people who will buy these were around when the Beatles conquered the U.S., had the original Capitol albums, but got rid of them years ago and perhaps never bought the Capitol CDs so they may not remember what the orginals sound like. My guess is that they will be happy with this release for the sound and the packaging, which looks to be on a par with the 2009 Mono Box.

I'm not as much of a stickler for the original sound as some people are, so I pre-ordered it. I have the Capitol CDs if I want the original sound. But as some of you know, I'm a sucker for nice new shiny Beatles stuff.